The construction of social reality in minority discourse: Polish immigrants in Montreal

This study is an attempt to trace the image of “ethnic” Canada in the everyday discourse of an immigrant minority. The focus is on how immigrants speak of people belonging to different ethnic categories including their own category and how they describe ethnic relations in Canada.

The subjects are Polish immigrants in Montreal. They are approached as agents of history—active subjects, rather than passive objects of social practices. A critical analysis of Polish discourse is undertaken and its functions and potential effects on Canadian society are discussed.

Part I consists of theoretical and methodological considerations. Different theoretical perspectives on social categorization are examined and a network of concepts for the study of ethnic discourse is established so as to construct a nuanced approach that recognizes the multifunctional character of the practices of social categorization. This part also contains a description of the methodological framework and research procedures used in the study as well as a profile of the Polish minority in Canada.

Part II comprises a case study. The ways through which ethnicity in Canada is constituted in Polish immigrant discourse are explored: how the subjects construct ethnic categories, which categories they treat as significant, what kind of principles they invoke to explain social relations, and how they define and explain ethnic identity. How Polish immigrants evaluate various social categories in different contexts of discourse and the basic functions of their discourse and its social consequences are also examined.

The results of the analysis confirm the constructed character of ethnic divisions and stratification. They also demonstrate some of the ways that minorities engage in the processes of social construction. The analysis also uncovers the great variability of ethnic discourse, as it reflects different needs and objectives of the speakers. While some constructions function as ideology, others serve a variety of social functions, often parallel to ideological ones. Some of these constructions challenge the dominant order of Canadian and Quebecois society and effectively function as counter-ideology.

This variability is taken as proof of multifunctional character of social practices related to ethnic categorization. Since many ideological constructions depend to some extent on the non-ideological functions of ethnic categorization, I argue that the practices of ethnic categorization should be looked upon as the precondition for ideology, rather than as ideology itself.

This ethnography of Polish immigrant discourse also demonstrates how micro-social practices taking place at the level of everyday conversation contribute to macro-social processes, such as the formation of ethnic divisions and stratification. Finally, the study is also an attempt to demonstrate the utility of combining the traditional methods of social anthropology with those of discourse analysis, particularly for studying and analyzing oral accounts.